Deborah Sampson was born in Plympton, in Plymouth
County, in the colony of Massachusetts on December 17, 1760.
She was born to parents, Jonathan Sampson Junior and Deborah
Bradford Sampson.Deborah's early years of life proved to be
difficult ones. The Sampson family was impoverished. Before
Deborah's fifth birthday, her father abandoned the family to
find his fortune at sea and was never heard from again.
Deborah's mother was later told that her husband had been
killed in a shipwreck.

Due to her father's abandonment, Deborah's mother lacked
the means to support her family. Deborah and her five
younger siblings were sent to live with various friends and
relatives. At age five, Deborah was adopted by a distant
relative who died only three years later. At age eight
Deborah was once again forced to find a new home, this time
that of a pastor's widow. Deborah was unhappy there, and at
age ten she became bound out as an indentured servant to the
family of Benjamin Thomas. Thomas was a deacon of the church
and an affluent farmer in Middleborough, Massachusetts.

Deborah seemed to enjoy life on the Thomas farm, although
she was required to work many long and difficult hours. At
the Thomas residence, she was able to learn many skills in
addition to her normal housework and farming duties. Deborah
did not necessarily comply with the accepted Puritan
attitudes of the times regarding women, and participated in
numerous "unfeminine" type activities. Some activities
included plowing fields, spreading manure fertilizer,
milking cows, stacking hay, and feeding farm animals. She
also became skilled in carpentry, spinning, sewing, and
weaving cloth. Throughout her life, Deborah continued to be
different from most women of her time period.

Most importantly, however, Deborah was permitted to gain
skills at school and to get an education. She tagged along
with the Thomas sons to the town schoolroom where she
devoured every bit of information possible. Deborah also
began to find great interest in politics and in the events
of the war that had begun between the American colonies and
the British.

Legally, in 1778 at the age of eighteen, Deborah was free
from her servitude with the Thomas family. Nevertheless, she
chose to remain at the Thomas farm for approximately two
more years, during which time she taught at the local school
and spun wool for several families.

At age 20, Deborah desired a more adventurous life and
set out to travel to distant towns. Being afraid to travel
alone as a woman caused her to devise a plan to travel
dressed as a male. Deborah compressed her breasts by
wrapping them with a cotton strip. She donned a man's coat,
waistcoat, and breeches, and made her journeys into several
distant towns and wild taverns, subsisting on a very meager
income.

In the winter of 1781-1782, Deborah found herself
boarding with the family of Captain Benjamin Leonard.
Similar to previous winters, she was employed by the family
to weave cloth for the Leonard family's clothing. During
these winter months, Congress desperately pleaded for more
recruits to join the American Army. Deborah began scheming
with the Leonard's servant Jenny to enlist in the army
dressed as a man.

Deborah disguised herself and went to the local
recruiting office, enlisting under the name of Timothy
Thayer. She pocketed the bounty money given to all recruits,
and went to a nearby tavern to spend the evening.
Apparently, an older woman at the recruiting office noticed
the way that Deborah had held the quill when signing her
name. She reported that it was similar to the way Deborah
Sampson held a pen, due to an injured finger that prevented
her from properly writing with a quill.

Officials confronted Deborah about the matter, and forced
her to give back the bounty money she had received. They
told her not to do this again, warning her that she would be
severely punished. Deborah's mother thought she ought to
marry in an effort to distract the town from all the cruel
gossip about Deborah. However, Deborah had no interest in
marriage at the time, and felt strongly about a particular
young man whom her mother wanted her to marry. "I had not
her eyes to see such perfection in this lump of a man, or
that he possessed qualities that would regenerate me"
(Evans, p.306, 1975).

Deborah escaped Middleborough and went to Bellingham.
There she found an agent who charged part of her bounty to
sign her up to enlisted in the town of Uxbridge. Dressed in
men's clothing, on May 20, 1782, Deborah Sampson became the
first American woman to impersonate a man and join the
American army serving as a soldier. Under the name of Robert
Shurtliff (also reported as Shirtliff, Shurtleff, and
Shirtliffe), she had enlisted for three years of service in
the 4th Massachusetts Regiment, commanded by Colonel Shepard
and later by Colonel Henry Jackson.

In the military, Deborah was able to keep her gender a
secret with minimal effort. She bathed during odd hours,
changed clothes, and used the restroom in the dark whenever
possible. For the most part, Deborah participated fully in
her soldier responsibilities, such as marching and drilling
each day. Never once did anyone hear Deborah complain.

During the summer of 1782, Sampson and thirty other
soldiers volunteered to flush out armed Tories in East
Chester. During this maneuver Deborah became wounded. She
was taken to a hospital and treated for head wounds. Deborah
was very fearful of having her gender discovered, thus she
hid a shot received to the thigh from her doctor. While in
the hospital, she was able to get the bullet from the shot
out of her leg by herself. Rather than confess her hidden
injury, she returned to active duty immediately without
allowing ample time for the leg wound to heal. Deborah's leg
never healed correctly and was a problem for the remainder
of her life.

Back in her hometown of Middleborough, the First Baptist
Church decided to excommunicate Deborah. The church
considered her actions of dressing like a man (Timothy
Thayer) to be "unchristian like" and loose behavior, and
that it was in the Church's duty to disfellowship her until
she returned and made "Christian satisfaction".

Sampson found herself in a hospital once again after
arriving in Philadelphia to aid in squelching a rebellion of
several American Officers. Malignant fever was raging in
Philadelphia and Deborah had a terrible case that nearly
ended her life. Dr. Barnabas Binney cared for Deborah at the
hospital during this illness. At one point he thrust his
hand to her chest to make sure her heart was still beating.
At this moment the doctor inadvertently discovered that the
soldier was a woman. This discovery became crucial to
Deborah's career in the military due to the fact that
Barnabas Binney was responsible for eventually telling
military officials that "Robert Shurtliff" was a woman.

Nevertheless, Dr. Binney was kind to the tired soldier
and opened his own home to Deborah. She stayed with the
Binney family for quite some time before returning to the
military in the 11th Massachusetts Regiment in full
health.

In September 1783, peace was assured through the signing
of the Treaty of Paris. Robert Shurtliff was to report to
West Point where she would join the West Point regiment
under the command of Major General John Paterson. The
Binneys saw Deborah off from Philadelphia, and Dr. Binney
gave her a letter for General Paterson.

Tragically, on her journey from Philadelphia to West
Point, Deborah's personal journal was lost. She was caught
in a boat on a river during a terrible storm, which capsized
their vessel and sent her clothes and daily journal to
settle permanently at the river bottom.

Upon reaching West Point, Deborah handed Dr. Binny's
letter over to General Paterson. The letter revealed
Sampson's guarded secret concerning her true gender, while
it praised her moral and intellectual qualities. General
Paterson and Colonel Jackson did not believe they had a
woman in their army until Deborah changed into women's
clothing. She was honorably discharged from the military by
General Henry Knox at West Point on October 23, 1783.

After her discharge, Deborah headed toward Boston and
found work at an uncle's farm in Stoughton. She worked there
until she met and married Benjamin Gannett in April of 1784.
Deborah had three children between 1786 and 1790, named
Earl, Mary, and Patience. The family eked out a meager life
on a small farm.

In January, 1792 Deborah petitioned the Massachusetts
State Legislature for back pay which the army had withheld
from her. Her petition passed through the Senate and was
approved, being signed by Governor John Hancock. The General
Court of Massachusetts verified her service and wrote,
"...Deborah exhibited an extraordinary instance of female
heroism by discharging the duties of a faithful gallant
soldier, and at the same time preserving the virtue and
chastity of her sex unsuspected and unblemished" (Evans,
p.317, 1975). The Court awarded Deborah a total of
thirty-four pounds for her services.

In 1802 Deborah began traveling and speaking publicly for
audiences throughout the colonies regarding her service in
the military. These speeches were initiated due to her own
personal financial needs as well as a desire to justify her
enlistment. During public speeches, she would often speak as
a type of opening act for theater plays. Sampson spoke while
fully clad in official blue and white uniform, armed with a
musket, and beginning only after performing twenty-seven
maneuvers of military gun drills.

She stated that, "I am indeed willing to acknowledge what
I have done, an error and presumption. I will call it an
error and presumption because I swerved from the accustomed
flowery path of female delicacy, to walk upon the heroic
precipice of feminine perdition!" (Evans, p.327, 1975). She
also declared, "...I burst the tyrant bands, which held my
sex in awe..." (Henretta, p.2, 1997).

In 1804 Paul Revere, a good friend of the Gannett family,
wrote to William Eustis, Massachusetts' representative in
Congress, on their behalf. The family was destitute and
Deborah's health was failing. Congress in Washington obliged
the letter, and placed Deborah Sampson Gannett on the
Massachusetts Invalid Pension Roll. The pension plan paid
the Gannetts 4 dollars per month.

Deborah died on April 29, 1827 at the age of sixty-six
and was buried in Rockridge Cemetery, one mile south of her
home in Sharon. It is speculated that wounds suffered during
the war may have hastened her death.

Upon her death, the government stopped all pension
payments to the Gannett household. After 10 years of
petitioning by Benjamin Gannett and one year after his
death, Congress passed a Special Act for the relief of
Deborah Gannett's heirs, and paid them the sum of $466.66.
This amount was determined compensation for the pension owed
Mr. Gannett from the time of his first petition to his death
in 1837.

"...They believe they are warranted saying that the whole
history of the American Revolution records no case like
this, and furnishes no other similar example of female
heroism, fidelity, and courage" (Evans, p.333, 1975).

1. Students will be able to describe the major
accomplishments of Deborah Sampson and her importance in
American history.

2. Students will list in chronological order events that
took place in Deborah Sampson's life.

3. Students will illustrate correct mapping skills by
locating places where Deborah Sampson lived on a map and by
creating their own map.

4. Students will be able to recognize how other
individuals might think or feel by role playing Deborah
Sampson during an interview and/or through a journal
entry.
5. Students will demonstrate their ability to formulate and
express their own opinions.

1. Mini-lecture. Present above background
information on Deborah Sampson through a mini-lecture.
Present information with enthusiasm, raising questions where
appropriate. Be sure to locate on a United States map the
different locations discussed in her life story.

2. Numbered Heads. Divide students into groups of
four. Provide students with a sheet of recall questions and
inferential questions regarding the life of Deborah Sampson.
(See Appendix) Have each group answer and discuss questions
among themselves, making sure that each member of their
group can adequately answer each question. Have each group
number off from one to four among themselves, and number
each group as a whole. Roll dice twice - first to choose the
group number and second to choose the number of the person
in the group. Have the chosen student answer a question on
the sheet. Continue until all questions have been answered
as a class.

3. Pictorial Timeline. Students each create a
brief timeline of the life of Deborah Sampson, drawing small
pictures depicting each event. The timeline should cover the
major events in Deborah Sampson's life and be as specific as
possible. Have students volunteer to display and share their
work with class members.

4. Values Whip. Discuss as a class the question
"What are your opinions about women fighting in the
military, or doing things that are usually done by men?"
Begin at one end of the class, and have each class member in
turn express their own thoughts and feelings on the
question. Provide an opportunity for students to pass if
they choose, and allow every class member to have a
turn.

5. Mapping the Journey. Have students find the
towns that Deborah Sampson lived in or traveled through on a
map. Have students create their own map of Sampson's life
and her travels. Students should use symbols and provide a
legend, locate and name the significant places in Deborah
Sampson's life, draw a line from place to place as they were
traveled during Deborah's life (in a very general sense),
and use the scale of the map to figure the distances between
various towns. Scale should be close to realistic, but
should not have to be exact.

6. Role Playing. Divide class into groups of three
or four. Assign one student in each group to "be" Deborah
Sampson who is visiting your class. The other members of the
group proceed to interview this person as if she were
Deborah Sampson. Appropriate questions about her life,
accomplishments, family, employment, feelings on the women's
movement, etc. should be asked. Encourage students to also
ask what she would think of our world and country today as
compared to her time period. The teacher may have students
switch roles after a few questions are asked to give each
student an opportunity to interview and to be
interviewed.

7. Recovering the Journal. Individually, each
student will write a journal entry from a day in Deborah
Sampson's life. Students may choose any day they would like
to write about, and narrate it as if it were Deborah Sampson
writing the entry. Be sure to have students assign an
approximate date to their entries. Students may volunteer to
share their entry with the class. When all students finish,
put journal entries together in chronological order and
create your own classroom version of Deborah Sampson's lost
journal.

3. Describe the situation(s) that provided for Deborah to
gain an education.

4. Describe evidence of Deborah's tendency throughout her
life to go against the "norms" of her times.

5. Why was the loss of Deborah Sampson's journal
tragic?

6. In your opinion, what was Deborah Sampson's greatest
accomplishment? Why?
7. Do you believe that Deborah Sampson's life would have
taken a different course if she had not lead a life of
poverty? Why or why not? Would she still be a famous
American woman? What would be the same and what would be
different?

8. Imagine you are Deborah Sampson's father and that you
were alive throughout the American Revolution. When you
heard of your daughter's enlistment and accomplishments as a
soldier in the military, would you make an effort to contact
her after abandoning her when she was four years old? Why or
why not? If so, how would you do it? What would you say?